Dongle
by writeallnight
Summary: Game night at Eric's place gets a little crazy...


A/N: Story time! Or, rather, pre-story story time. I was at the office, in the midst of summer camp crazy, and someone mentioned the word "dongle" and...this was born. I just could not resist. Enjoy the hilarity!

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"Do we have to do this?" Kensi asked with a sigh.

Nell looked up at her with an expression of long suffering. "We promised. He'll be crushed."

Kensi groaned and took a deep breath. "I hate my life," she muttered as she knocked on the door.

It flew open in a matter of seconds. "You came!" Eric cried, wrapping them both in a long-armed, awkward hug. "Come on in!"

They followed him inside his apartment and Kensi's eyes grew bigger with every step. The place was neat, there was no doubting that. But it looked as if a Comic-Con had exploded all over the walls, leaving nerd everywhere.

"Do not laugh," Nell hissed. "You'll hurt his feelings."

"It's like being inside Stan Lee's brain," Kensi whispered back.

They followed him around the corner to the living room where Deeks was sitting, nursing a beer. He got to his feet as they approached. "Hey, you're here!" he said a little too brightly.

"Nell, can you come help me with the snacks?" Eric asked.

She followed him into the kitchen leaving Deeks and Kensi alone in the living room.

Kensi went to her partner's side and kissed him.

"Is there a reason you and Nell decided to be an hour late?" he asked. "We had to play two person charades."

"Why do you think we waited so long to come in?" Kensi told him with a smile.

"You'll pay for this Blye."

"I'm stealing your beer," she told him, reaching behind his back to grab the bottle, pressing it to her lips.

"I hate you."

She wiggled her eyebrows at him. "You love me and you know it."

He sighed. "Damn it. I hate when you're right."

"Okay everyone," Eric and Nell returned, snacks in hand. "Welcome to Eric Beale's Game Night Extravaganza."

"Where are Callen and Sam?" Nell asked.

"Oh, Callen had a date with Jo and one of Sam's kids is sick," Eric explained.

"Which is code for: they ditched us and are hanging out together somewhere," Kensi whispered to Deeks.

Eric did not seem deterred by the lack of participants. "Okay so we're going to start with Pictionary, followed by a rousing game of Settler's of Catan, and ending with a good old fashioned round of Mario Kart."

"I need more beer," Kensi said. She took the fresh one Deeks had just opened.

"This system is not going to work for me," he told her.

"It's working for me just fine," she replied saucily.

"Obviously we will have two teams," Eric continued. "I thought we would do—"

"Boys versus girls!" Kensi and Nell declared at the same time.

Kensi stood up and plopped herself unceremoniously next to Nell on the couch.

"Traitor!" Deeks cried.

"Um, totally traitor," Kensi told him. "You are the worst at Pictionary."

"I let you take my beer!" Deeks groused.

"Uh, Nell, I thought maybe you and I would actually be…" Eric started.

"Not tonight Beale!" Nell told him. "Lady power all the way. We're going to kick your asses."

Eric looked uncertain but quickly recovered. "Okay Buddy," he clapped Deeks on the shoulder. "Looks like it's you and me."

"Yeah," Deeks glared at the ladies. "We'll see whose asses get kicked."

Nell was extremely competitive. And Kensi could trash talk like a football fan on Superbowl Sunday. This combination was proving to be something of a challenge as the night wore on.

"Deeks, we're dying here," Eric said desperately during their third round of Pictionary. "We've got to do something!"

"Don't worry," Deeks told him. "Kensi's on like her fourth beer. The more she drinks, the lamer her trash talking gets. We just have to hang on a little longer and she'll be so distracted by her own words that she won't even realize they're losing."

Kensi's inebriation did not stop the ladies from winning two more rounds of Pictionary. The boys narrowly won a team game of Settlers of Catan at the kitchen table but that was only because Kensi gave away all their team's wheat when Nell went to the bathroom.

It was nearly eleven when Eric sent them all back to the living room for Mario Kart.

"I like you," Kensi snuggled into Deeks on the couch.

"You're drunk," he replied with a smile.

"Your…butt is drunk," she replied.

"Wow, the potty mouth on you," he tapped her nose playfully.

She grinned and took another sip of her drink.

"Hey Nell?" Eric asked. "Do you remember where I put my dongle after work?"

Kensi choked on her beer. "Your what?" she asked.

"My dongle," Eric said again and Deeks felt Kensi grab his hand tightly. "I had it in Ops but now I can't find it."

He patted his pockets and frowned.

"I saw it yesterday," Nell told him. "Were you playing with it this morning?"

"Wow, what do you guys do up there in Ops?" Deeks asked as Kensi buried her face in his shoulder, shaking with mirth.

"Knock it off you two," Nell said with a roll of her eyes and a smile on her lips. "A dongle is a piece of computer equipment, like a flash drive."

"I just don't know what I did with it," Eric said. "Maybe Hetty took it."

"Hetty took Deeks' dongle the day she made him sell his motorcycle," Kensi said seriously.

"Hey!" Deeks cried.

"Seriously, guys, if I can't find it we can't play the game," Eric said as he shook out his work bag.

"Nell, you do it. I draw the line at helping another man look for his dongle," Deeks told her.

Kensi and Nell burst out laughing. Eric was not amused and responded with an exasperated, "Guys!" as he searched behind the television.

Eventually the dongle was located and Kensi spent a solid hour trying to knock Deeks off his little car. "Could you….this is not the point of the game!" he cried the fourth time she sent him over a cliff.

"But it's so much more fun this way," she told him.

"Fun for you!"

"Die, Beale, die!" Nell yelled, her tongue between her teeth in concentration.

"You first Jones!" he yelled back.

"Okay, well, this has been fun but I think it's time I got the smack talk queen home," Deeks said.

"Okay bye, thanks for coming!" Eric said never taking his eyes off the screen.

"Bye!" Nell waved quickly with one hand, her eyes glued to the screen as well.

"Come on Kensalina," Deeks pulled her up and wrapped his arm around her shoulders as they made a slightly less than graceful exit.

"That was…fun," Kensi said once the front door closed behind them.

"Yeah, because you were not on your best behavior," he told her with a smile. "You and Nell are not allowed to be a team next time."

"You're just jealous that I picked her over you," she told him with a smile.  
He snorted. "Oh, really? That's what you're going with? I'm jealous?"  
"Don't worry. I'd pick your dongle over Nell's any day."

He winced. "Wow. Yeah, that sounds wrong. You need to not…that's a no. I really want to just block all thoughts of the word 'dongle' out of my memory forever if you don't mind."

"I wonder if Callen has a dongle?" Kensi asked as they got in the car.

"Don't. No. Stop."

"Where do you think Sam keeps his?"

"No more beer for you!"

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A/N: Hope you enjoyed it! I certainly cracked myself up writing it ;) Leave your thoughts in the reviews!


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